Not Just About Me #MFRWAuthor Blog Challenge

Good question, but I’m not sure I have a good answer, certainly not an easy one. It varies by book.

For the first book I finished, Worth The Risk, by Lyn O’Farrell, a pseudonym for me and my friend Anne Farrell, we really stuck with what we knew. We set the book in Southern California where we live. Since we were both part-time librarians, we gave our heroine the same occupation. And I used what I knew from years of watching car races with my husband and suggested our hero be an ex-race car driver. I even drew on my experience of flying to Catalina Island in a small plane for one scene. We had fun with that book.

My second book, Rogue’s Hostage, was a lot more serious. For one thing, it’s a war story, set during the French and Indian War. It opens in Western Pennsylvania where I grew up outside Pittsburgh. I did a lot of research and spent three years writing the book. My mother died during the process, and when I’d finished it, I realized that my heroine, Mara, was, in so many ways, my mother. I dedicated the book to her memory, as well as that of my grandmother, who inspired my love of storytelling and history.

The books that followed were a little less personal, but reflect my interests in various historical periods. Lily and the Gambler is set in an area my husband and I explored together, the Gold Country of California.

I’ve always loved fairy tales, and that’s reflected in my Kingdoms and Legends series: Ilona’s Wolf and Tova’s Dragon. And Marooned, my steamy pirate romance, answers the question: Who do you want to be stranded with on a deserted island?

All writers put something of themselves into their books, but sometimes it’s so subtle, we’re not even aware of it. At least I’m not.